Performance Constraints Quotes

The two things you cannot do effectively on stage are pray and copulate.

I think in theater it demands that you say the same words every night and make it feel fresh and new. Improv demands that you be operating at the highest level of your creativity intelligence. So these two skills are both very important but I've seen people who are very skilled at one area struggle with the other. Either improvisers feel constrained by having to say the same thing over and over again or people who are really good at doing scripted work feel intimidated and exposed doing improvisation.

True expression is hard when performing opera. The problem is that opera relies on the dramatic context of the piece. It can be interpreted and represented, but there are guidelines; there is a vocabulary within the pieces that you must know objectively and reflect.

I do an opening in 'The Glory of the World' play at BAM, and then I go up to the high balcony in the back and watch the bulk of the play, but then I have to leave my seat about seven to 10 minutes before the end of that final big scene...and it's a bummer.

No actor has complete freedom.

I like your own shows because you can have a bit more fun and extend your set, you can go a bit over if you want because it's your show. Whereas at festivals it's very strict, like if you go like two minutes over they get ready to pull the plug kind-of-thing. They're both good and bad.

You know, we have our own audience, and it's not like - they just know we're not going to do certain things.

When I sing with Loaded, I can't move at all. I'm playing guitar, and I'm singing.

Acting is about going into the space, and there are just some places that I'm not willing to go.

I have been trying to perform well and give my best, but unless I have a good story line in my hand or a supportive team, I am nothing.

You have to contort your body in a certain way to hit a low note. When you're on film, you can't. So you do, in a sense, get to hide behind your voice, which is nice.

Actors have far fewer choices than the public thinks they do.

Sometimes in film and television, I don't have the opportunity to play roles that really stretch and challenge me.

There is something about the live performance of an orchestra that makes it very different to a film. With a film, you can rewrite it in a way with the material you have, and in rehearsals, you're really trying out different things. In an orchestra, you can't do that. They separate as soon as the performance factor comes into play.

I think one of the traps of theater - what makes it so amazing is that it's not able to be mass-produced, but it also makes it hard to get work seen by people because if you're a creator, you do a cabaret or something, and maybe 100 people will see it and then it ends the night that you close it.

I love theater. I go all the time. It's one of the reasons I moved to New York. But I understand that I have limited range as an actor. I can only play people who talk like me.

As long as I didn't have to put on the tiara and the chains and the big yellow shirt for the whole series, I was up for anything.